Daunting recovery effort confronts people in N.J.

by Lisa Rein - Oct. 31, 2012 11:14 PMWashington Post

HOBOKEN, N.J. - Two days after superstorm Sandy struck the East Coast, rescue officials confronted flooded cities and battered beach towns that remained dangerous and chaotic, particularly in pockets of hard-hit New Jersey.

Large portions of this old factory city were still flooded, and pumps were working round-the-clock to clear a toxic and potentially deadly mix of more than 500 gallons of water, oil and sewage. National Guard troops in 2.5-ton Humvees patrolled the flooded streets, seeking to evacuate the most vulnerable of the city's 20,000 stranded residents, nearly half of Hoboken's population, who were told to stay inside and signal for help with pillowcases.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer stood in the gathering darkness Wednesday afternoon and begged the outside world to hurry with more supplies, such as flashlights, batteries, food, generator fuel and drinking water.

"We ask anyone who's listening to deliver supplies to us," she said from the steps of City Hall, which was without power.

The mayor spoke over the sound of whirring water pumps and humming diesel generators. The smell of sewage, seeping up from storm drains, hung in the air on some of the city's streets.

"If people who are listening have generators, we are asking you to bring them," Zimmer said. "We are still very much in crisis mode."

Across the state, officials reported eight storm-related deaths.

President Barack Obama got a firsthand look at the massive devastation when he joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for an afternoon helicopter tour of the state's ravaged beach communities.

From his Marine One helicopter, the president looked down on boardwalks smashed to splinters by the storm, houses split open by floodwaters and the ruins of a roller coaster that had come unmoored from a shattered pier in Seaside Heights, N.J., and washed into the ocean.

"I want to just let you know that your governor is working overtime to make sure that, as soon as possible, everybody can get back to normal," Obama told residents in the seaside community of Brigantine, N.J., after the tour. "The entire country has been watching what's been happening. Everybody knows how hard Jersey has been hit."

The state's coastal barrier islands were ravaged by high winds and water that knocked homes from their foundations, flooded streets and ruptured natural-gas lines, which continued to burn Wednesday in some New Jersey beachfront communities like Brick Township.

More than a dozen homes were destroyed in the shore town of Mantoloking when stubborn floodwaters prevented firefighters from reaching blazes sparked by the natural-gas leaks, the Associated Press reported.

Hours after Obama had returned to Washington, large swaths of the state were still without power. Lines stretched for blocks at the few open gas stations around Toms River, N.J, scene of some of the worst flooding. Police blocked bridges leading to barrier islands where hundreds of homes were under water. School buses carrying evacuees passed a small yacht in the middle of the road.

There were some signs of progress in the recovery effort. Local power-company officials, aided by crews from nine states, estimated that they had restored electricity to about 500,000 New Jersey residents. For some, though, the wait for power was expected to stretch as long as 10 days. Throughout the state, there were no reports of widespread looting.